Cool photo.

Charles,
Interesting comment. I actually when to a wedding in Long Grove, IL once. As I recall, it is located near or at the Fox River in the far western suburbs (exurbia) of Chicago. Also, I believe the photo is of I-5 near Snoqualmie. I recall being on a trail once and seeing I-5 above me. Can't remember exactly where that is though.

@2 Whoops! Meant to say "went" not "when".

@2: Yes, I also thought that photo was taken on the Denny Creek Trail.

We go through cycles. I guarantee that the burbs will be back. In the meantime, their purported demise is caused by flight to exurbs as much (if not more) than the influx of new urban dwellers.

I briefly (very briefly - 6 mo.) lived in an area of Boulder, CO that had completely privatized maintenance of the roads in about a 10x10 or so square block area. Mostly I didn't notice, but then a blizzard hit and the streets - all the streets - remained unplowed for weeks. Everyone was stuck in their home unless they walked through knee or waist deep snow to get to a cab on a plowed road. Some cars tried to get out, only to become trapped in the middle of streets, where they waited until the snow melted. Even people with plows on their pickup trucks couldn't do anything because they were stuck under snow too. There were ragtag, crisscrossing lines of shoveled areas connecting a few houses, but mostly everyone was stuck. The postal service kept everyone's mail at the post office because no delivery trucks could get through. I had wondered what would happen if someone needed the police, or fire dept., or ambulance. There was simply no way in or out.

Apparently, their community-approved plan in case of snow was: "just wait for it to melt."

Idiots.

I'm SO glad I don't live in Boulder anymore. They project an image that they're super liberal and progressive there, but in truth, they've got a deep seated libertarian mindset going on.

I think that is the new Issaquah exit on I-90. I-5 is nowhere near denny creek. If @2 wasn't such a hippie-commie-bike riding-no car-public transit-2 block radius-hipster they would know this.

(did I nail the suburban dickish attutude correctly)?

@ 6, were you actually within city limits?

And how is this privatization plan better in their minds than taxes?

I do not envision any serious decline in the future of the suburbs for a multitude of reasons: Cheaper and bigger homes with a bigger bang for the buck than the city proper; The bigger homes for the ego trip breeding of kids and perceived safety and quality of those school systems for those kids away from the big dirty crime ridden city; and an opportunity to have separation from progressive politics, lifestyles and culture and in some cases, dare I say it, dark skinned people--around here, maybe not Kent or certain parts of Bellevue, but arguably applicable to much of Sno Ho County and east of the mountains

Meh - they will put up with this "privatize" nonsense for a while and then they'll cave and agree to increased tax revenue - that's the real end result. Sprawl is driven by tax arbitrage, it's true, with mature places (dense cities) at the high-tax/high-service end of things, and with formerly rural low-tax localities gobbling up revenue and proffers from an influx of taxpayers and developers before the 'externalities' and associated taxpayer costs become apparent.

That does not mean sprawl will stop though. I think you're dreaming if you think maintenance costs are unsustainable just because of lack of density in many of these cookie-cutter PUDs. They'll re-reach equilibrium by eventually caving to the demand for increased taxation.

It's more or less like those special assessments that condo-owners get stuck with: yes, the builder left you holding the bag and should be the one paying for the repairs, but you're the one living under a leaking roof. Or on the un-plowed street to use the example from @6. You get a few of those snowstorms on a regular basis, or the inevitable potholes, and slowly, painfully and in ultimately on the most expensive path possible, you'll arrive at "socialism": collective taxation for a common (public) good.

It ought to be noted that not all suburbs in all parts of the country are insane. In my old homeland of Connecticut, realm of endless suburbs, things tend to work because the populace isn't made up of anti-tax and anti-government zealot refugees from Galt's Gulch.

@9,
I think so, but on the edges for sure... In Table Mesa, sort of near to where that winding uphill road to NCAR begins.

Cheap energy is over and wasteful car-subsidizing living as well.

Nice image Chucky! Citing Blade Runner is, for you, perfect. That dense, decaying polluted nasty and gloomy mega metropolis where neither sun nor color nor hope ever intrude is exactly your dream habitat.

Freak.

Prescient post Charles. I dig it.

If we accept Charles' premise that suburbs aren't, or soon won't be viable, we've got a couple options; Abandon them, or turn them into city. Given the vast amounts of money tied up in suburban real estate, #1 probably isn't on the table, even in our children's lifetimes. #2 is more intriguing, and compelling considering that in Seattle's case, 85% of the region's population lives outside the Seattle city limits. The places where millions of us live could become more financially and ecologically sustainable if they were subject to targeted design and policy interventions. We in the city have the benefit of inheriting a built form that was created for a world before mass car ownership, thus a transit supportive fabric is intrinsic to our urban form. our eastside counterparts aren't so fortunate. There's a growing literature on how to retrofit auto-based urbanism for the future. This may be the defining challenge for 21st century American urbanists.

I grew up in north Florida, so I know rednecks. The deterioration of roads will only encourage them in that they will have a better justification for driving absurd vehicles.

"Jimmy, did you just drive to work on a camouflage ATV?"

"Hell yeah man, I need that. I live out in Oakriverridgeton, that old gated community. We ain't seen a road crew since '09, but I got me a McMansion with 12 bathrooms an' all I had to do was put in a septic tank and a rainwater cistern. I turned the master bath into a deer butchering room."

Gravel is the new black[top].

hey chuck, i'd really love to have you over sometime. we can kick back by the creek, dip our toes in the water (hey, if you come in october we can watch the salmon swim upstream), and have a beer. maybe we'll roast some marshmallows over the campfire as the sun goes down through the trees. i'll bring my guitar and play you some nice, calming music. it would do you good to get out of the city once in awhile.